The past few weeks have seen the Bell's moving from Florida, and
setting up house in AR. A bit on the nippy side for the rest of the crew, but I
personally don't mind the change from the heat.

On the weekend of January 30th, we moved up with truck, #2 son,
Mrs. Bell, and Mrs. Lebaron, my mother in law. Marie Lebaron is a great gal, and
I was very glad to have her help with the driving. Young Jon drove with the cat
and myself in one of the worst trucks I've ever driven. Glad it was just one
way.

After getting everything unloaded, with the able assistance of
Ken Adler, we adjourned to Colton's to try some of the local fare. As usual,
very good.

Monday saw us once again at the Searcy Young Scots, doing our
best to bring along some local talent. A meeting with Gary Harris of the theatre
department led to some great ideas for the Dinner/ Ceilidh at this year's
festival. Further meetings throughout the week, as well as the Tuesday and
Thursday practices and Arkansas Piobaireachd Society, rounded out the schedule
for the first week of February.

On Monday and Tuesday of the second week, I took a drive to see
the Memphis Scottish Society, and W+NW Arkansas Scottish Society respectively.
All very nice people indeed. I attended the memorial of Tom Duck, of the 14th
District Drug Task Force, on Friday, along with 300 of his police friends and
family. A moving affair for a much loved man.

Magnolia was scheduled for Saturday with the band. All was going
well till we hit just south of LR. I have not seen snow like that since a piping
adventure in Washington DC some 30 years ago. Always carry some extra hemp in
the box for when the wiper motor blows. Ken Adler and Wally Hightower had gone
down earlier that day, and thank goodness they had. They performed admirably,
and upheld the good name of the band. Well done lads. More from Kenton on his
adventures there.

Jimmy

This here is the story of the St. Valentine's Day Blizzard and Massa-cree.

The band was scheduled to play at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia on
Saturday evening for a Burn's Nicht supper hosted by Jim McCollum and the local
Scottish society there. Things did not go quite according to plan.

By chance, I went down ahead of the rest of the band. I lived in
Magnolia as a child and still have numerous relatives in the area that I don't
get to visit very often. I also have a dear friend in Louisiana who was
able to make the trip up to see the show, and so I was anxious to see them all
and have an opportunity to visit with them prior to the arrival of the band.
Wally Hightower also decided to drive down ahead of the band to do some flea
market and thrift store shopping in a part of the state he doesn't get to
frequent. Wally is a WWII re-enactor and is always looking for interesting
items to add to his kit, so ever on the lookout for a rare item at a bargain
price.

It rained on me most of the way to Magnolia on Friday night, and continued
all morning Saturday, and it continued to get colder.

4:00PM rolled around and the rain was looking more like ice pellets as I
arrived at the Bruce Center on the SAU campus. We got inside and found
Wally all dressed out and ready for a show, but no sign of the rest of the band.
We found Jim McCollum and got the low-down on how the evening would go. He
said he'd tried to call Jimmy a couple of times but was unsuccessful in reaching
him, but that he'd heard the weather was real bad up around Little Rock, and
that snow was falling heavily in the band's path. As the 5:00PM start was
approaching I was getting a little worried that they might've skipped the tracks
and wound up in a ditch or something. Jimmy's an excellent driver (his dad
lets him drive slow on the driveway), but the road between Prescott and Magnolia
is winding and narrow and it wouldn't have been too much fun in that weather.
Jim said he'd like to have a piper in the foyer playing from 5:00 until about
5:30 when the dinner would be served. I told him I would get tuned up and
play in the absence of anyone else. So, when the appointed time rolled
around I struck in and began playing. That's about the time the snow
started falling in Magnolia. An unusual occurrence, and one that sent most
of the staff outside at some point to check it out.

A knave in the nave

At 5:30 Jim asked if I could pipe in the Haggis, so we got lined up and
paraded the "Great Chieftan o' the Puddin-race" around the room and heard the
Ode recited, and then sat down to a magnificent dinner. Appropriate toasts
were offered at appropriate times, and the Immortal Memory well observed.. The haggis was
prepared by the food service folks at SAU and was one of the tastiest I've ever
had. The supper also featured buttered scones, mashed tatties, succulent roast
beast, a barley dish that was absolutely delicious, and cock-a-leekie soup, with
shortbread for dessert. I sat with Wally, my cousin, and my dear, and we
were joined later by Mary and Joe from the Scottish Society in Little Rock.
Dinner was just fantastic, and I was sorry the band was missing it, but still
hoping they would arrive.

By 6:30 it was looking like they flat wouldn't get there, and the snow was
REALLY coming down. So, I told Jim not to fret, that the show would go on.
I got the Fairylore tuned up, tuned up the guitar, spot-tuned the great pipe and
Wally acted as my announcer and thoroughly charmed those in attendance, and kept
things lively as I made instrument changes for the next hour plus.

Where's Jimmy?

It was a little tricky, as I still wasn't certain the rest of the gang
wouldn't be there, so I was deliberately staying away from band material and
playing everything else I could think of. I did a medley of light music, a
competition MSR, slow airs on the smallpipe, Lord Franklin and Mairi's Wedding
on guitar, The MacIntosh's Banner to demonstrate Piobaireachd, and then finished
up by playing Amazing Grace and getting everyone to sing along (to fulfill the
piper's contractual agreement for all performances), and the as the band
OBVIOUSLY wasn't coming I finished up with our closing medley of Auld Lang Syne/We're
No Awa To Bide Awa/Scotland the Brave, again with most everyone singing along.
All in all, we had a splendid time and everyone enjoyed the impromptu
performance. None more than Wally and myself I think.

Auld Lang Syne

Just the same, I'd prefer that the rest of the group make it down with us
next year and share in the hospitality.

Magnolia wound up with about four or five inches of snow that night, and the
roads were pretty messy headed back to the hotel. Most everyone who had
planned to drive home that evening stayed over. Sunday was gorgeous and
warm, and most of the snow was gone by the time I pulled out for home a little
after noon.

For the band,

Kenton Adler

Photos by Wally Hightower

Feb 29

There was a bit of a delay in writing as no one else seems to be willing to
tell the tale, and I had to go out of town for a few days after the band's
return from New Orleans. Here's the scoop though. We started the
weekend of the 20th with Sergei, Tristen, Billy Buckmaster, and myself playing a
service here on campus for the Arkansas Presbytery as they installed their new
Moderator.

Sunday morning we departed at 9:30AM in full uniform for Newport, where the
entire band played for a service at the First Presbyterian Church. It's a
real pretty little church, and they had good attendance that morning.
Here's a Claudia Marsh photo of us in action.

Where's Jimmy?

Survey says: Jimmy was awa' ti New Jersey competing in the
Metro Cup. After this service was over we had a delightful lunch prepared
by the congregation members, then we hustled out to the parking lot and changed
into our secret identities, loaded into the Lyonmobile and proceeded on down the
road toward New Orleans. We met up with Jimmy about 12 miles inside
Mississippi. His flight had arrived pretty close to the time we were
hitting Memphis. After we met up with him we proceeded on down the
highway.

Dinner stop at one of the finer dining establishments in Jackson
MS, and then we rolled on into the New Orleans metropolitan area in anticipation
of participating in that little party they throw called Mardi Gras. We got
to the Day's Inn over on the west bank in harvey at right around midnight.
Of course, they had screwed up our reservations and only had half the rooms we'd
reserved (though all had been payed in advance). No problem, as the place
was sort of a dump, and the woman at the desk was none too helpful. We
drove down to the Holiday Inn, and they were most accommodating and friendly.
Fixed us right up.

We woke to rain and thunderstorms on Monday morning. Some
of the gang braved the weather and caught the shuttle over to the ferry and went
into town. I opted to hang out at the hotel a while, but wound up driving
into town with Jimmy and Watson later in the day to scope out the location we
were scheduled to be at to hook up with the Proteus parade. Found it with
no problem. We were back there right on time and in full piper drag when
the rain started up in earnest. Proteus cancelled, so we crossed Napoleon
Blvd. to a little cafe on the corner of Napoleon and Magazine called Mae's.
We circled up and played out under the balcony, much to the delight of people
who had come out for the festivities. I'd say we salvaged that portion of
the evening for quite a few folks. We played all the band material, and
various people presented solo stuff as well. The rain let up, so we
decided to proceed on down to Bourbon Street and try our luck. We had a
time getting there as the Orpheus parade went off on schedule and it was
difficult finding a way to get across St. Charles and into downtown.
Bourbon Street was packed, as one might imagine. We formed up and played
here and there, and were rewarded with numerous beads, much applause, and I
think we made a BUNCH of new friends. We also stayed about an hour and a
half longer than I was real comfortable. I don't much like being that
closed in with a bunch of people I don't know.

Tuesday morning we got up early and went back into town and
formed up for the Rex parade. I was thinking it would be a little sparse
at the beginning and end, and crowded in the middle. Wrong-o! Packed
all the way from start to finish on the nearly seven mile route. It took
close to four hours to navigate the entire route. Special kudos to Serge's
wife, Holly, who kept us hydrated, and to Chris Slaymaker for watching our back,
and to John Voorhees for completing the route, and to Grey Abernathy on his
first parade with a pipe band. If he didn't know High Road to Gairloch
when we started that parade he sure does now.

As soon as the parade ended, Tristen and I hopped a cab back over to the van.
The most excellent cabbie told us how to get around the parade and back to where
the band was waiting. We then miraculously found a way back over to the
west bank where we changed, picked up the other two vehicles and beat it for
Batesville. We stopped at our favorite dining establishment (Cracker
Barrel) in some little now just north of New Orleans. SSSSSSLOW service at
this one, but good food. Then back on the road. My vehicle arrived
in Batesville just about 2:30AM Wednesday. Very pleasant as I had to get
up early and drive to Dallas for a presentation I had to give at a professional
conference. We're a full service pipe band.